The duo of Susanna Hoffs and Matthew Sweet may be the perfect assimilation of vocal chops and instrumental savvy, as shown on a pair of recent albums titled Under The Covers (Shout! Factory), with volume one re-examining big hits from the ’60s and volume two tackling the ’70s. The track record for Hoffs and Sweet speaks for itself. Hoffs’ band, the Bangles, was the only member of the hallowed Paisley Underground scene to sell more than a handful of records, cracking the national top-30 no fewer than eight times from 1986-89. Sweet’s breakthrough album was 1991’s Girlfriend, which paved the way for later power-pop classics like Altered Beast and 100{e5d2c082e45b5ce38ac2ea5f0bdedb3901cc97dfa4ea5e625fd79a7c2dc9f191} Fun. The pair plans to take an acoustic version of their Under The Covers act on the road in September, but in the meantime is guest editing magnetmagazine.com all this week. Read our Q&A with them.
Matthew Sweet: These are the tools of Zeus. I always get a great feeling cranking up an amp and making noise! It’s here where a guitar sound becomes a true force of nature to be reckoned with. Everybody always seems to be toning things down, but I wanna rock. Tube amps are where it’s at. Recent faves of mine to play through are the Swart AST and the 65amps London. Also, I’ve been playing amazing, amazing guitars from a young genius luthier, Dennis Fano. Fano, you are truly my hero!
